Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Toyota releases new Vitz

Here it is: The 2012 Toyota Vitz (aka Yaris). In Japan and other markets, the car will be available with a 1.0-, 1.3, and 1.5-liter engine driving either the front wheels or all of the wheels. In Japan, the car will be available in 17 colors, and Toyota hopes to sell 10,000 a month there. FYI, the Vitz/Yaris will be on sales in 70 countries, and has previously sold 3.5 million units.

Obviously the styling has changed, as has the interior. Gone is the rounded-off, bulbous shape. Also gone is the center-mounted dashboard. Transmission choices (again, in Japan) will be either the Super CVT-i (the only option on the 1.0 and 1.3 models) or a 5-speed manual or Super CVT-i on the 1.5 mill. I'm a bit surprised they didn't go with a six-speed. Also surprising is the fact the car will be available with the old 1NZ-FE 1.5-liter, which makes me wonder if that's the engine we'll get in the U.S. That engine debuted in the U.S. in the Toyota ECHO in 2000.

1 comment:

-The dash looks quite a bit classier but it also looks like they've sacrificed the extra gloveboxes to achieve that look.

-More trunk space would be nice. Lowering the cargo floor by putting the spare in an indentation and going to a fold-and-tumble rear seat would go a long way; a complete redesign based on a stretched iQ platform would potentially steal the space-utilization prize from the Fit. Can't wait to see one opened up.

-I wonder what the non-RS front looks like, and the other body styles.

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